Portable radio cabinet



May 14, 1963 R. s HUFF PORTABLERADIO CABINET Filed Dec. 2, 1960 INVEN TOR. Wad y BY United States PatentO 3,089,740 PORTABLE RADIO CABINET Robert S. Huff, Oak Park, 111., assignor to Motorola, Inc., Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Dec. 2, 1960, Ser. No. 73,446 1 Claim. (Cl. 312-7) This invention relates to a portable radio and more particularly to a support for a compact cabinet or housing of a portable radio.

With the present rather widespread use of transistors in radio receivers it has been common to construct them in compact form with the housing of rather narrow depth. This is particularly true of the battery por-tables and socalled pocket receivers. When such comparatively thin housings are used a difficulty may arise in supporting the receiver in an upright position on a table or other surface in order to best orient the receiver for use. That is, a cabinet :which is dimensioned in such a way that its length and width are of substantially greater dimensions than its depth, may necessitate a supplement for its depth dimension to afford the required stability to be supported in an upright position. It is of special interest and concern, not only to provide for holding the cabinet in such a position, but also to enhance the appearance of the cabinet, or at least not detract from its original symmetry.

While some forms of cabinet support aids have been used with portable radios in the past, these have often been of rather fragile construction or have added unduly to manufacturing costs or have detracted from the cabinet appearance.

Accordingly, the primary object of this invention is to provide an inexpensive and attractive cabinet for a portable radio receiver which is of small depth and which may be firmly supported in an upright position.

A feature of this invention is the provision of an improved cabinet having a pivoting blade arm disposed at its base for maintaining the cabinet upright when moved to its operative position.

A second feature of this invention is the provision of a pivoting blade arm with detent means, which when not in use, folds flush with the base of the cabinet and when in use may be fixed to properly support the cabinet.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the bot-tom and back of a cabinet constructed in accordance with my invention;

FIG. 2 is a similar view of the cabinet of FIG. 1 showing the pivot blade arm in its open position;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the cabinet of FIG. 2 in an upright position;

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of a modified construction of the cabinet;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to that of FIG. 4 but with the blade arm in its open position;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the cabinet taken on lines 66 of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is an end elevational view of a still further modification of the cabinet.

The cabinet of the present invention employs a pivoting blade or arm carried on its base so that the radio, or like device, which may have a base not capable of affording the required stability to maintain the device in an upright position may, by virtue of the pivot arm, assume that position. The pivoted blade in its closed position is preferably flush with the bottom of the cabinet in order to add no appreciable size to the cabinet. In its open position the blade moves in an are up to 90 from the closed position thereby aifording the necessary base width or depth to maintain the cabinet in an upright position. In various forms the blade may also include stop means to limit its movement and reduce the 1ikeli hood of undesired collapsing.

Referring now particularly to FIGS. l-3, the numeral 10 indicates generally a portable radio receiver comprising a cabinet or casing portion 11, a base portion 12 at the lower end of the casing portion 11, a carrying handle 13, control knobs 14, and a blade arm 15 located at the bottom of the base portion 12. The blade arm 15 1S pivoted by fastener 16 to one end of the base portion 12.

The blade arm 15 has a plurality of serrations 17 formed at the edge of the free end thereof to facilitate manual operation of the arm. The base portion .12 is shown formed with a flange 18 extending downwardly from two adjacent sides'of the base portion 12. A curved portion 21 of flange 18 is formed partially around and spaced from the curved end of blade arm 15, which is the end thereof adjacent the pivot fastener 16. With the blade arm closed its further pivotal movement is eliminated by flange 18.

In FIG. 2 the blade arm 15 is shown pivoted to its operative position thereby exposing a release mechanism generally indicated by the reference numeral 23-. This release mechanism comprises a clip 24 fixedly mounted to the bottom of its base portion 12. A recess 25 is formed in the bottom of the base portion 12 to accommodate the clip 24. The clip 24 resiliently secures the back portion 26 in place. Access may be gained to the inside of the cabinet 11 by overcoming the clip 24 to detach the back portion 26 from the front portion 27 (FIG. 3) of the cabinet 11. The curved portion 2.1 is shown restricting further pivoting of the blade arm 15. With the blade arm 15 in this position the radio receiver may be placed in the upright position as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows the portable radio receiver cabinet 10 in an upright position, tilted back slightly. This tilting is caused by the configuration at the base portion 12. Since the base portion 12 is slanted, i.e., the bottom of the base portion intersects the back wall of the casing at a point higher than it intersects with the front wall, it provides a tilted back stance to the cabinet. This til-ting is desirable in order to distribute the weight of the receiver to apply cabinet weight to the blade arm 15. With the receiver 10 in the position of FIG. 3, the front portion 27 of casing 11 may more efiiciently direct the sound from a loudspeaker (not shown) toward a listener and the dial (not shown) and other controls will be more convenient for use.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment in which a portable radio receiver indicated generally by the reference numeral 30 has a base portion 31 formed with a flange 32 on two adjacent sides thereof. The blade arm 33 has one end 34 pivotally secured to the base portion 31 by fastener 35. The blade arm 33 is shown in its closed position flush with the base portion 31.

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the receiver 30 and shows the blade arm 33 in its open operative position. Base portion 31 (FIG. 6) has a detent arm 33, indicated generally by the reference numeral 36'. The detent comprises an L-shaped spring clip 37 having one leg thereof fixedly mounted upon the inner wall of the receiver 30. The base portion 31 is formed with a round opening 38. A ball 39 is captured in this opening and the spring clip 37 urges the ball 39 toward the inner surface of the blade arm 33. The ball 39 may detent in socket 40 formed in the blade arm 33 to hold the blade in operative position. Until overcome, the detent 36 will maintain the blade arm in this predetermined position. Socket 41 (FIG. '5) is also formed in blade arm 33 and when the arm is in closed position the detent ball 39 drops in socket 41 to maintain the arm in such position. If

the blade arm is open beyond the detent socket 40, it is limited to a maximum 90 movement by engagement with flange 32. A slot (43) is formed in the bottom of the base portion (31). This slot afiiords an entry post to facilitate removal of the back portion (44) of the cabinet which is frictionally held in engagement with the front portion 44a (FIG. 6).

FIG. 7 is a bottom View of a portable radio receiver 45. In this embodiment, a blade arm 47 is pivoted at approximately its mid-point by a pivot fastener 48 located at about the middle of the bottom of the cabinet of receiver 45. The blade is here shown in its open or aperture position. When switched to its closed position, the blade arm 47 is flush with the bottom of the cabinet 45. A detent system 50 similar to that of FIG. 5 is also useful for the blade arm of FIG. 7 to facilitate location of and retention in closed and open positions.

A portable radio cabinet made in accordance with this invention provides therefore, a simple folding bracket stand pivotally mounted upon the base portion of the cabinet. The blade arm may preferably be made of attractive metal to enhance the cabinet appearance and in fact the cabinet bottom section beneath the arm need not be as decorative as otherwise would be desirable, since the blade arm will vertically always cover the bottom section if it is visible.

As will be understood, a lighter weight cabinet would utilize the detent arrangement as shown in FIG. 6 whereas the heavier units would, in most cases, not re quire such an arrangement since the parts would be constructed as to be self-limiting" by virtue of the protuberance disclosed and claimed herein.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, a slanted base portion is not required since the pivot arm projects in front of the cabinet as well as in back.

I claim:

A cabinet for a portable radio receiving set comprising a casing portion having a base portion formed at the bottom thereof, said base portion being slanted upwardly toward the back of said casing portion, a downwardly extending flange positioned along the front and one side of said base portion to form a blade receiving recess, a substantially rigid and fiat elongated blade arm to be received in said recess so that said blade arm is maintained flush with the bottom of said casing and against that part of said flange along said front, pivotal mounting means for securing one end of said blade arm to said base portion adjacent that part of said flange along said one side, a detent disposed upon said base portion adjacent said pivot portion, said detent comprising a spring clip fixedly mounted upon the inner wall of the bottom of said base portion, a ball slidably disposed in said opening in abutting relationship to said spring clip at the inner surface of said blade arm, said blade arm being pivotable out of said recess and engageable with that part of said flange along said one side in a fully extended position and further having a plurality of sockets formed therein to serially receive said ball so that the arcuate movement of said blade arm may be restricted to a plurality of predetermined unretracted positions for supporting said cabinet on a surface in a rearwardly slanting upright manner.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

